Washington Suburban Dairy Commission Case Summary

Introduction The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) has been managing the production and availability of clean and potable water for a steadily-increasing population base since its establishment in 1918 by the Maryland General Assembly. The organization’s service area has remained about the same since its early years. According to the WSSC website, that area in the State of Maryland, “spans nearly 1,000 square miles in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties serving 1.8 million residents through approximately 460,000 customer accounts.” A case study published by Harvard Business Press examines a major re-organization of the WSSC that was spurred in the late 1990’s due to increasing pressure from dissatisfied customers, public administrators and elected officials who were threatening to privatize the water utility’s operations. That case, authored by Harvard Business School Professor Amy C. Edmonson and Research Associate Corey Hajim, serves as the basis for this case analysis which seeks to answer
Some strong areas that Griffin could build upon for a more vital and robust WSSC include the creative changes that were instituted regarding the utility’s staffing. Though Griffin should take great care in becoming too lean as, “[t]he workforce was as small as it had been in 40 years, serving a customer base that was much larger than was much larger than it had been 40 years ago.” (page 9) As Griffin and other managers become more comfortable in their roles and with the operational efficiency of the “new and improved” WSSC, they may want to explore a more aggressive, Kaizen approach toward staffing that focuses on continuous improvement and operations excellence. Kaizen its continuing focus on quality improvement seem to be tailor-made for the changes and vision in store for WSSC from the perspectives of both Griffin and the elected officials and bureaucrats in the State of